Greek life has been a longstanding pillar of UW’s campus experience: they provide a sense of community for students who have generational wealth and unlimited Zyn budgets, and they separate the cool kids from the geeds. Yet in recent years, Greek life all over the country has come under fire for abusive hazing rituals like consuming dangerous amounts of alcohol and even bodily harm. And now the beast of hazing is, once again, rearing its ugly head on the UW campus. 

Last weekend, police responded to a 911 call from the Delta Iota Chi (ΔƖΧ) Fraternity, more commonly known as DIX. The call was placed by initiated member Tyler Blane, who was growing concerned for the safety of the pledges. 

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Blane said, “I mean we always haze the pledges a little bit. It’s fun. Older brothers always pick on the younger brothers, just like in real families. I did it because mommy and daddy are always fighting. But this crossed a line.” 

Blane cited their usual hazing as forcing pledges to wear those ugly 2016 mens jeans to class, paddling, and mandatory physical exercise. UW is also no stranger to hazing incidents in the past, with two fraternities being disbanded in the last decade as a consequence, and a suspicious sheep related incident happening at a currently active frat in early 1990.  

UWPD was able to rescue pledge DJ Hamms from his hazing ritual, just in the nick of time. Their representative confirmed that Hamms was intended to undergo the heinous task of cleaning the DIX bathroom, which notoriously had not been cleaned since March of 2013. 

“We all know not to go in there when they throw parties,” said Chloe Hamms, older sister to DJ Hamms and member of Kappa Upsilon Mu (ΚΥΜ) sorority, or KUM. “We actually haze our pledges by making them use those toilets without hovering.” 

As a result of their actions, DIX fraternity is no longer officially recognized by the University of Washington. It’s still unclear whether the national chapter will disband them, but we know this for sure: there was some real bad fungus hidden in the folds of DIX.